Welcome to the Asheville High/SILSA Speech and Debate team. Speech and Debate allows students to explore public speaking and performance, debate styles and procedures, deepen critical thinking and writing skills, gain confidence as a public speaker, and increase awareness of public events. All in one class! Our life-changing Club regularly competes on a State and National level. Students learn to present ideas and argue points both pro and con in a convincing and effective manner. Speech and Debate Students at ASHEVILLE HIGH/ SILSA are active in our community, regularly receive College Scholarships and become better leaders in our society. The speech and debate boosters coordinate the team activities such as fundraising, judging, running the Cougar Classic and much more. The boosters meet the second Wednesday of each month at 6:00 pm in room 205. Come join us to learn more about our team and help lead our kids on an life changing academic journey. The Asheville High Debate Booster Club exists to provide scholarships to members of the Asheville High Debate team. There are two types of scholarships. General scholarships are associated with a particular event, and apply to all participating members of the team. Available funds for general scholarships are to be divided equally between all participating team members. The purpose of AHDBC shall be to serve as a support organization for students of the Asheville High School Debate Team. Purpose includes but is not limited to: 1. Assisting the Head Coach and Assistant Coaches in organization, development and planning of Debate Team events and travel. 2. Serving as tournament judges and transportation providers when appropriate. 3. Engaging in organization of fund raising activities. The Cougar Classic is AHS/SILSA Speech and Debate team’s home tournament. As the tournament hosts, we are responsible for judging the student events, feeding the students and the judges, awarding the winners, and showing off AHS/SILSA’s amazing Speech and Debate team. The Cougar Classic typically takes place the third week in November.It takes ALL our Speech and Debate parents and students to run the Cougar Classic. To have a successful event we need judges and event volunteers. Running the event involves registering the participants, feeding the students and judges, and setting up and cleaning up before and after the event. All Speech and Debate Students are expected to work the event. All parents are strongly encouraged to work the event. Speech and Debate tournaments are where AHS/SILSA Speech and Debate students shows their prowess. We travel to various schools around the state and perform speeches and debate current events. We even attend a tournament at Harvard University.  We encourage (very strongly) parents to become judges and attend tournaments with our team. Take a look at the schedule below and sign up for a tournament today! There is a fee for students to attend a tournament. Each student gets a Golden Ticket (one pre-paid tournament fee). All other tournaments must be paid for. If you judge a tournament, the tournament fee is waived.